Shaw, T.V., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Magruder, J., & Needell, B (2008). Measuring Racial Disparity in Child Welfare. Child Welfare, 2, 23-36. doi: 0009-4021.
author’s/authors’ professional discipline/s (e.g., SW, Nursing, Medicine) or institutional affiliation (University, agency, hospital) Points? /What this supposed to be graded? The authors professional disciplines are as followed: MSW, MPH and PH.D.
Terry V. Shaw PhD, MSW, MPH and is an Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Emily Putnam-Hornstein MSW and Joseph Magruder MSW are Graduate Student Researchers, Center for Social Services Research, School of …show more content…
For example, over representation of Blacks and underrepresentation of Non-Black.Therefore, the authors of the article argue and propose what they refer to as a Disparity Index. According to them, the Disparity Index will be the primary instrument for assessing racial disparity in the Child Welfare System.
Research question/hypothesis (full sentence) 10 …show more content…
Salient (most noteworthy) finding/s 10 pts
The most noteworthy findings are the following: that the disproportionality metric may be misleading in situations where the group of interest is composed of a small or large proportion of the population. However, the disparity index corrects for this potential bias by comparing the relative rates of the two groups. Therefore, the disproportionality metric and disparity index were useful in this research study due to the reliable data that it gave once the study was administered and the research findings were discovered and recorded.
Strengths/weaknesses of the study as noted in the article (not of the article itself) Points? What’s this part supposed to be graded?
A weakness of the study was that Disparity Index should not be used in isolation to argue that biased decision making or institutionalized racism are (or are not) at play. The parties involved in this research hope to use the disparity index to fully explain the over and under-representation of black versus non-blacks in the foster care system. A strength of the study was however, that if the disproportionality metric formula and the disparity index are used together, biases with regards to small or large population variables can serve to correct the disparity